SB 06.01.34-36 sarve padma-palasaksah... cited

Expressions researched:
"kiritinah kundalino" |"lasat-puskara-malinah" |"pita-kauseya-vasasah" |"sarve padma-palasaksah"

SB Canto 6

SB 6.1.34-36, Translation and Purport:

The order carriers of Yamarāja said: Your eyes are just like the petals of lotus flowers. Dressed in yellow silken garments, decorated with garlands of lotuses, and wearing very attractive helmets on your heads and earrings on your ears, you all appear fresh and youthful. Your four long arms are decorated with bows and quivers of arrows and with swords, clubs, conchshells, discs and lotus flowers. Your effulgence has dissipated the darkness of this place with extraordinary illumination. Now, sirs, why are you obstructing us?

Before even being introduced to a foreigner, one becomes acquainted with him through his dress, bodily features and behavior and can thus understand his position. Therefore when the Yamadūtas saw the Viṣṇudūtas for the first time, they were surprised. They said, "By your bodily features you appear to be very exalted gentlemen, and you have such celestial power that you have dissipated the darkness of this material world with your own effulgences. Why then should you endeavor to stop us from executing our duty?" It will be explained that the Yamadūtas, the order carriers of Yamarāja, mistakenly considered Ajāmila sinful. They did not know that although he was sinful throughout his entire life, he was purified by constantly chanting the holy name of Nārāyaṇa. In other words, unless one is a Vaiṣṇava, one cannot understand the activities of a Vaiṣṇava.

The dress and bodily features of the residents of Vaikuṇṭhaloka are properly described in these verses. The residents of Vaikuṇṭha, who are decorated with garlands and yellow silken garments, have four arms holding various weapons. Thus they conspicuously resemble Lord Viṣṇu. They have the same bodily features as Nārāyaṇa because they have attained the liberation of sārūpya, but they nevertheless act as servants. All the residents of Vaikuṇṭhaloka know perfectly well that their master is Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, and that they are all His servants. They are all self-realized souls who are nitya-mukta, everlastingly liberated. Although they could conceivably declare themselves Nārāyaṇa or Viṣṇu, they never do so; they always remain Kṛṣṇa conscious and serve the Lord faithfully. Such is the atmosphere of Vaikuṇṭhaloka. Similarly, one who learns the faithful service of Lord Kṛṣṇa through the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will always remain in Vaikuṇṭhaloka and have nothing to do with the material world.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 6.1.27-34 -- Surat, December 17, 1970:

Yamunā: In Siddhaloka there are angels? That means angels?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) There are many different types of human beings. So, the Caranas, the demigods, the Siddhas. Don't think that in every planet you can find out the same bodily features. There are different bodily features. So in Siddhaloka they have got the same bodily features, but their powers are far, far greater than ours. Siddha-sat...

Now they are describing,

sarve padma-palāśākṣāḥ

pīta-kauśeya-vāsasaḥ

kirīṭinaḥ kuṇḍalino

lasat-puṣkara-mālinaḥ

"You are so beautiful-looking that all of your eyes are just like lotus petals." Sarve padma-palāśākṣāḥ pīta-kauśeya-vāsasaḥ: "And you are very nicely dressed with yellow colored garments and ornaments," and kirīṭinaḥ, "with helmet," kirīṭinaḥ kuṇḍalinaḥ, "earrings, nice earrings, nice jewels, helmets," kirīṭinaḥ kuṇḍalino lasat-puṣkara..., "and with nice flower garlands." This is the description of the inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭhaloka. There is no hat-coat-pant. They are dressed in a different way.

Lecture on SB 6.1.34-39 -- Surat, December 19, 1970:

Guest (1): English devotees.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. (Hindi) So the constables of Yamarāja, they are describing the bodily features of the Viṣṇudūta. You can have an idea of the Viṣṇuloka, or Vaikuṇṭhaloka. From this study, we have to understand that there is a spiritual sky, and that is far, far extensive than the material sky. You cannot even measure the sky covered by one universe, and there are innumerable universes. That is... All together, that is one-fourth of the whole sky. It is a rough estimate only, according to the Vedic scripture. And the three-fourths of the sky is spiritual sky. The population in the spiritual sky is far, far greater than the material sky. Only a few living entities who are rebelled... Just like the population in the prison house is insignificant compared to the whole population of the state, similarly, the living entities who are here in this material world, they are very insignificant. Including all the universes, all the planets together, they are an insignificant portion of the whole living entities. Ananta. Hy anantāya kalpate. The living entities, there is no counting, ananta, unlimited number of living entities. Therefore in the Vedas the living entities are plural, but God is one. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13).

sarve ca nūtna-vayasaḥ

sarve cāru-caturbhujāḥ

dhanur-niṣaṅgāsi-gadā-

śaṅkha-cakrāmbuja-śriyaḥ

(SB 6.1.34)

This is another description of the feature. Sarve ca nūtna-vayasaḥ. In the Vaikuṇṭhaloka, the inhabitants are always young, just like Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu is always young. There is no old age. Old age is here in this material world because this material body becomes old, not the spirit soul. Spirit soul is always fresh. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So they are describing that "You are... You look all just very young." And sarve cāru-caturbhujāḥ: "And you are beautifully embodied with four hands." Sarve cāru-caturbhujāḥ. (aside:) What is that? Dhanur-niṣaṅgāsi-gadā-śaṅkha-cakrāmbuja-śriyaḥ: "And exactly like Viṣṇu, you have got dhanur, bows; and śaṅkha, conchshell; cakra, disc; gadā, club; and ambuja, padma, lotus flower. Everyone." That means everyone in the Vaikuṇṭhaloka, they are exactly like the bodily feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa. This is called sārūpya-mukti. There are five kinds of liberation. This liberation, to have the same bodily feature like Nārāyaṇa, is called sārūpya, "the form exactly like Viṣṇu." Sārūpya-mukti. There are five kinds of liberations: sāyujya, sālokya, sārūpya, sārṣṭi, sāmīpya (CC Madhya 6.266).